Last week we reported that the father of 15-year-old Isaac dished out a unique punishment to his son after catching him smoking a joint with two friends. The father took his intended Christmas gift, “Guitar Hero III,” and put it on eBay with a lengthy explanation as to why his son no longer deserved the gift. The result: some Australian won the auction with a $9,100 bid, according to Agence France-Presse. But what’s been most entertaining is the dialogue that has developed as chronicled here, from the father's thoughts on parenting to the legalization of marijuana to the father’s theory on why his son smokes pot.
The father, a school teacher in Canada who kept his identity private, got flooded with responses, and while he couldn’t respond to them all, he expanded his thoughts. Here are some of the highlights:
“I would like to clarify some things: I am not: ‘sadistic,’ ‘publicly humiliating my son,’ ‘power-hungry,’ ‘an a—hole,’ ‘a douchebag,’ or any similarly bad things - especially when it comes to my son… I am not kicking my son when he is down, so to speak. He and I are very close and are more like best friends than father and son (right buddy?), especially over the last couple of years. I will not get into the details of my family life, but rest assured that I knew when posting this that he would not be driven to run away from home, or do any other of the un-thinkable. If this was a possibility, of course I would not have gone through with it. Think of the auction as me “joshing him”, as friends often do, in addition to letting him know that he seriously disappointed me.
“We have struck a deal. It seems that guitar hero 3 is not the only thing he has ever wanted. The money will go to good, fair use, and depending on how much it actually is, I may use some of it in a more philanthropistic context. I made him understand that the money is NOT HIS and it is not a situation of “higher bids = better present for Isaac.”“Many of you seem to think I am an archaic, ultra-conservative who puts marijuana use up there with heroin and cocaine. This is absolutely not the case…Yes, I realize that pot is undeniably very safe relative to any other controlled substance, and yes, I would rather my son be smoking the occasional joint than going on bender-drinking binges with fratboys or being addicted to cigarettes (he assures me he doesn’t smoke and I believe him).
“I don’t want my son smoking pot. It’s that simple…Many of you think it could potentially benefit him in terms of stress and/or school performance. Well, he doesn’t need it. Not to brag, but my son is highly intelligent…It is my strong opinion that he smokes pot because he is bored. He is not challenged in school and he lives in the suburbs. Yes, it’s a sad fact: we live in the suburbs and kids get bored here. We have spoken about this and are trying to find ways to circumvent his boredom. Peer pressure is of course another contributing factor.”
“This also has nothing to do with the legality of pot use. Just because it is legal doesn’t make it right. For all of you out there who have provided me with this fact as part of your argument, I would like to see you give your offspring a cigarette and a beer when s/he turns 19 (actually no, I would not, but you get the point). It is, however, my strong opinion that outlawing marijuana use is a gross hypocrisy while alcohol and tobacco use are permitted. This is just one reason why I am fortunate to live Canada, where the laws concerning pot use are significantly more civilized than in many other developed countries. Not to say they are perfect however.”

That will buy some good...ummm...stuff for the holidays.